“That wasn’t fun” says Ricciardo after Tsunoda qualifies eight places ahead · RaceFans

Daniel Ricciardo was downcast following his elimination in the first round of qualifying while his team mate made it to the final stage.

Yuki Tsunoda will start eighth on the grid while Ricciardo lines up eight places further behind in the other RB.

“Today wasn’t good,” admitted Ricciardo after qualifying. “Not much to say.”

The two RB drivers ended practice yesterday inside the top six, separated by just one hundredth of a second. Ricciardo was at a loss to understand why he had been unable to replicate the performance.

“We didn’t change much,” he told the official F1 channel. “It just was a lot harder for us to get the most out of the new tyres. Nothing productive to say.”

“We were really confident yesterday,” he added. “Yesterday was good. That’s why we didn’t really change much. This morning on the medium we were okay.

“Then we put the soft on and we were nowhere. But we thought obviously quali would get it sorted and we didn’t. So that wasn’t fun.”

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Ricciardo missed the cut for Q2 by 0.127 seconds. Tsunoda’s lap in the same session was three tenths of a second faster than his.

The result is a blow for Ricciardo as Red Bull and RB intend to review the performance of their drivers following this weekend’s race, amid widespread speculation Ricciardo may be replaced by Liam Lawson, if not immediately then in time for the 2025 season.

The team’s head of vehicle performance, Guillaume Dezoteux, said the two drivers had been a close match on pace but Ricciardo had lost time in the braking zones.

“Yuki progressed to Q2 and then Q3 by putting solid lap times together and he qualified P8, which is a good starting position for tomorrow’s race,” he said. “For Daniel, the pace was very similar but finding the limit on braking in a couple of places has been more difficult and cost him Q2 by one tenth. We need to understand better this limitation as every detail counts in this tight field.”